The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, is the outcome of years of struggle in which thousands of Sikhs were imprisoned and beaten, many were peer killed by the British police. It “is a coincidence that the first meeting of the members of the General House of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee was held on October 2, 1926, and the current elections for the 170 members of the General house of the SGPC will also beheld, after a gap of 17 years, in India on October 13, 1996. The SGPC is the only democratically elected body in the world which manages religious shrines. Known as the mini parliament of the Sikhs, The SGPC runs administration of almost all Sikh shrines in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryand and Chandigarh, under the Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925.

The original act was to give the administration of all the historical Sikh Gurdwaras in the undivided Punjab to the SGPC, but after the partition of India in 1947, nearly 250 historical Gurdwaras were left in Pakistan. This left only the Gurdwaras in East Punjab under SGPC control, and when PEPSU (Patiala and East Punjab States Union) merged with Punjab on November 1, 1956, all the historical and state-owned Gurdwaras were transferred to the SGPC. Besides administering the Gurdwaras, the SGPC is also entrusted with enforcing the Rehit Maryada, the code of conduct, among the Sikhs, and of course other literary work, including the printing of the guru Granth Sahib. The SGPC was born out of a long Struggle by the Shiromani Akali Dal and as such both have a rather close relationship. The SGPC is often used as a readymade podium for SAD’s political agenda, and often, the SGPC has played a significant role in the general elections in Punjab. According to the Sikh Gurdwara Act, the term of the house of the SGPC was three years though this was later amended to five years. The elections to the SGPC were first held in 1926, and thereafter in 1930, 1933, 1936, and 1939. After 1939, elections were held in 1944, 1955 (1949 elections were postponed and were not held till 1955), 1960. And 1965. After 1965 the Indian government did not conduct any elections, perhaps because of the total rout of the candidates supported by the ruling Congress party in the last two polls. Ultimately elections to the SGPC were held in 1979 after the Janata party came to power at the Center (with Akali Dal as a junior partner), the forthcoming polls are being held under a directive of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, and incidentally now also it will be a non-Congress government which will conduct them.

Sikh women got the right of franchise in 1925. Sikh women’s right to vote was not contained in the draft of the Gurdwara Bill published on January 21, 1925, which was circulated among the Sikhs to get their input. It was on the recommendation of the SAD and the SGPC that the Sikh women got the right of franchise. This year’s SGPC election is significant from the feminine point of view also because for the first time there is a reservation of 30 seats for women candidates. Again it is the premier Sikh body which has taken the lead in the emancipation of women, the proposal for such a reservation for women was recently allowed to lapse on the floor of the Indian parliament.

Article extracted from this publication >>  October 9, 1996